Energy Codes are Getting Complicated! It’s time for a simpler approach
In the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the primary residential provisions of the code (Chapter 4) consisted of four pages. That same chapter in the 2021 IECC is 21 pages long! Mandatory, prescriptive, performance, energy rating index, additional efficiency packages and UA trade-offs all combine to make IECC compliance complicated.
Prescriptive compliance is increasingly more expensive and complicated to use, and the performance compliance option doesn’t allow consideration for high efficiency equipment. The energy rating index path provides a whole-house performance approach but has aggressive targets that are complicated with amendments for ventilation requirements and no requirements for quality assurance oversight of third parties.
If the energy code’s primary purpose is to reduce energy consumption, why can’t we set performance goals and let builders figure out how to achieve it?
One recent example of this approach is in Texas. Texas House Bill 3215 updated the state’s universal energy code compliance pathway to allow builders to use the energy rating index for energy code compliance across the state, in lieu of the state energy code or any stretch code adopted by municipalities. The legislation ratchets down target ERI scores to improve efficiency through 2028, allowing builders to plan for future efficiency requirements.
Attend this webinar to learn how a simpler approach to energy code compliance can work, how it can be used to set a path to net-zero energy and how to implement it in your state.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn about the changes and complexities of the IECC over time.
- Understand how the energy code can be simplified.
- Be able to describe how a simplified performance-based approach has worked in other states.
- Learn how a performance-based energy code approach can be used to get builders to net-zero homes more quickly.
